Yes!! I ended up racing today and this is how it went.
I started out by me and my Dad deciding to come down to the So-Cal sprinters race to watch.
We brought the trailer down as well WITH the new PRD we got. Everyone wanted me to go and race so thats what we decided to do.

We missed the first practice so we could only do the second one. We went out to go and try it out with old slicks and an engine that haven’t been used a while, as well a practically BRAND NEW Topkart Speedy that I had not driven before.

So we set off for our first practice, and it ended up being as slippery as ICE. The big problem in the practice was that the engine was to bogging out on me coming out of the corners and also at the top ends on the straights.

So after my first practice session, my dad leaned down the mixture to see if that would solve the bogging problem.
Then we put on our wet tired to cut the slipping problem and get more grip for qualifying. But yet, it did not!!

I finished sixth (last) in qualifying, five seconds off pole (#74, Max Ries). We went back to our pit to figure out what the problem was. My Dad had no idea what was causing this, so he called up Blake Craig from Tru-Tech. Blake said he thought our fuel might be a bit too lean, so we went out to see if that would do the trick, but still problems, and Ries still coming first. Blake came over to the track to see what the problem might be. He decided, no, he GUARANTEED, that it’s probably just a small problem with the carb, so we tried to see if that would help our problem.

This was the main race order: pole: #74 of Max Ries, second:#22 of Robby Melton, third:#99 of Corey Hoover, fourth:#20 of Kyle Tetzlaff, fifth:me (Henry Falls-Hand #78), and sixth:#5 of Lucas Podboj (starting in the back due to spinning out in the pre-main).

I was sent out and did two warm-up laps, it felt great! Eventually we got on the line up, and off went the green flag!

First corner, I kept my same position, but second corner, Tetzlaff and Melton had some contact and I passed. I ended up behind Hoover (him in second and me in third).

After about three laps behind him, he got a bit loose and I took my passing advantage. I took second place from him and kept it for the whole race, slowly catching Ries every lap.

Clawed up to 2nd place…

Main-race finishing order:1st: Max Ries, 2nd: me(Henry Falls-Hand) finishing 2.892 seconds behind, 3rd: Corey Hoover finishing 13.400 seconds behind, 4th: Lucas Podboj finishing 13.559 second behind, 5th: Kyle Tetzlaff finishing 22.994 seconds behind (sent back a bit more due to second corner contact), and 6th: Robby Melton (finished 8 laps behind due to first corner contact AND having to pull in on the 6th lap for carb trouble).

My kart was great in the main overall, so special thanks to Dad for putting together my new kart, Blake Craig at Tru-Tech for going out of his way and coming down and fixing my carb at tech, and Empire Karts for lining us up with the great new Topkart!

Looking forward to more great results next race, wish me luck!

Henry #78

PAK Schedule:

Saturday, January 30, 2010 Pacific Karting – Media Day - Free Kart Practice on Saturday with paid registration
Sunday, January 31, 2010 Pacific Karting Race #1(Day)
Sunday, February 21, 2010 Pacific Karting Race #2(Day)
Sunday, March 28, 2010 Pacific Karting Race #3(Day)
Sunday, April 25, 2010 Pacific Karting Race #4(Day)
Sunday, May 16, 2010 Pacific Karting Race #5(Day)
Saturday, June 19, 2010 Pacific Karting Race #6(Night)
Th, Fri, Sat, July 8, 9, 10 Summer Kart Kamp
Saturday, July 10, 2010 Pacific Karting Race #7(Night)
Saturday, August 14, 2010 Pacific Karting Race #8(Night)
Sunday, September 5, 2010 Pacific Karting Race #9(Day)
Fri, Sat, Sun, September 10, 11, 12, 2010 IKF Regional hosted by PAK
Sunday, October 3, 2010 Pacific Karting Race #10(Day)
Sunday, November 14, 2010 Pacific Karting Race #11(Day)
Sunday, December 5, 2010 backup rain date (Day)

I got 3rd place on Saturday at the Tri-C Karters Calspeed race.
Qualified 2nd, heat 1 =2nd, for heat 2 the “mechanic” decided to get
creative with the axle width and I dropped to 4th. For the 14 lap.
Finally I got the old man to reset the original chassis settings and then
I flew with the pack.
Despite a poor start. I made a couple of good passes but then had to
brake as two karts in front of me got tangled. Parker Stanway hit me
hard in the rear putting himself out of the race but also breaking the
exhaust support cradle on my kart. So nearly put me out as well!

The #0 & #37 karts who had, tangled cut across track and re-joined ahead of
me, putting me back at 4th, I passed #37 and moved on #0 but I started to lose power.
The hard rear end crash had broken my exhaust bracket and the exhaust rotated
around so the outlets were being blocked. Bye-bye power…
I got 3rd place though and I was pleased to have had a good
challenging race. Still, I don’t think people cutting across the track
and illegally gaining position should be allowed to keep it. Judges??

Henry